central Malawi
Malawi is known as the "Warm Heart of Africa" which a traveler to central Malawi will pick up on quickly as they are greeted with warm smiles, the traditional handshake, and the Chichewa greeting "mu-li bwan-gi?" which means, "how are you?" To which the visitor will be taught to reply cheerfully "N-dil-i bwin-O!" which means, "I am well!" It has been this authentic and sincere warm heart that has kept bringing BTCV back to Malawi to serve at the Sankhani Government School located in Makalani Village not far from the capital city of
Lilongwe. As the headmaster, teachers, and community members worked hard to provide educational opportunities for the growing number of students, the school campus had fallen into disrepair. Then, through friends at a church in Columbia, Missouri, BTCV was introduced to a Malawian community activist - Rev. Lawrence Benedicto - who lives and serves in the village. Lawrence helped establish the partnership with BTCV and set up a phased-building plan to add and restore infrastructure that the school needed in order to continue to provide improved educational opportunities to the more than 1,000 students from the 30+ villages and sub-villages that it serves.
Lilongwe. As the headmaster, teachers, and community members worked hard to provide educational opportunities for the growing number of students, the school campus had fallen into disrepair. Then, through friends at a church in Columbia, Missouri, BTCV was introduced to a Malawian community activist - Rev. Lawrence Benedicto - who lives and serves in the village. Lawrence helped establish the partnership with BTCV and set up a phased-building plan to add and restore infrastructure that the school needed in order to continue to provide improved educational opportunities to the more than 1,000 students from the 30+ villages and sub-villages that it serves.
In 2011, BTCV sent the first team of volunteers to Malawi to serve at the Sankahani Village School. These Changers partnered with the local community to build a brand new library building with the help of a local professional builder.
During this first phase, BTCV leadership noticed that the 5 double-classroom buildings on campus were in serious disrepair. In addition, hundreds of government-issued desks were badly damaged from years of extensive use without maintenance.
We implemented our needs-analysis method to develop a plan for a whole campus solution in phases, and BTCV Teams have completed renovations on the classroom blocks that included new roofs with skylight panels, concrete ground gutters, windows, doors, paint, and
chalkboards.
chalkboards.
One of the largest undertakings for this campus was the refurbishment of hundreds of desks. This project epitomizes the concept of development aid in that all of the desks were repaired, refurbished, and reclaimed using locally-available materials and tools, so that they could also be maintained well in the future. Changers worked with students, teachers, parents, and grandparents to gather all of the broken desks on campus, organize them according to level of repair needed, and then teach the students how to repair and maintain them. It was so fulfilling to see the beautifully restored desks in the renovated classrooms and hear the students say, “That’s my desk, I built that!” to their parents, grandparents, and siblings as the led them by the hand to show off their work.
The first project in Malawi also introduced us to a young student named Sam Sonjola who was in wheelchair as the result of polio. When we learned Sam’s story, we found out that he was an excellent student and loved to learn, but had to rely on other students to pick up his wheelchair and carry him into a classroom. Sam was so determined to complete his education that he made this work every day for each class, but BTCV learned that there were more students in wheelchairs not attending school because of the difficulty and embarrassment of getting into classrooms this way. BTCV is committed to providing educational opportunities for all students, so we added wheelchair access ramps to every building on campus.
The phased projects for the Sankhani School were completed in 2017, and during this time, the community completed on-site teacher housing on their own. BTCV is proud to have partnered with this community on this whole-campus solution for sustainable education in the Warm Heart of Africa. To learn more about future trips to Malawi contact us!